Jammu, Mar 23: With nearly 43.47 lakh cell phone users, J&K is witnessing a boom in the mobile telephony.
 The telecommunication has shown a tremendous growth in the state in past few years particularly after the launch of cellular services in August 2003.
 Though the state was the late entrant into the telecom sector, it has caught up with the rest of the country and cellular density (Mobile per 100 persons) in the state as on December, 2009 stood at 34.75, which is marginally above the national figure of 32.51.
 Officials in the state telecom sectors told Greater Kashmir that with the increase in the estimated number of users, it can be concluded that roughly every third individual in the state is using a cell phone.
 As per the official figures, the subscriber base which was only 40100 in March 2004 has reached to 4347781 in less than six years in December 2009.
 The subscriber base of the service providers has increased manifold in the last few years, officials said adding that Airtel was leading with 1724263 mobile subscribers followed by Aircel with (1484090) and BSNL (970542), Vodafone (157202 and IDEA (11684).
 Contrary to the common notion that the temporary ban by the central government on prepaid mobile services in the state has affected the service providers, the telecom companies have gained around ten lakh subscribers in last nine months.
 Aircel alone has gained six lakh subscribers followed by Airtel, which added around ten thousand subscribers over this period.
 However, the BSNL remains the leading telecom service provider in J&K with 970542 mobile subscribers, 229275 landlines and 99034 WWL connections.

Lastupdate on : Tue, 23 Mar 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Tue, 23 Mar 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Wed, 24 Mar 2010 00:00:00 IST